Month: February 2011

by Zoe Pollock

Ben Paynter explains how to get a good return on your investment in the slammer:

[C]igarettes, the former gold standard for securing everything from a bodyguard to starched laundry, have all but disappeared since tobacco was banned at federal pens in 2004. So inmates have to rely on other forms of currency. All of which means the prison economy runs much like a commodities market: Money in a commissary account can’t be traded, but goods sold at the commissary can be. And since the amounts in circulation are tightly regulated, their value can far surpass their price in dollars.

Besides the unexpected Mackerel currency, he cites a combination lock:

Use: Keeping stuff secure. Plus, you can put it inside a sock to make a weapon.
Value: Let’s just say it’s worth a heck of a lot more than a pack of cigarettes if someone needs one in a pinch.

by Zoe Pollock

Alissa Walker investigates the architecture designs for a new Palm Springs project:

And while catering to active older people with non-traditional draws like a "rooftop disco" — insert visions of Cocoon in the desert — there are some issues with designing what's essentially a theme park for gay retirees. Healthy, young tourists likely won't want to spend their vacation staying at a retirement home, even if they're welcome, and locals might not want to do their shopping at a nursing home, where extensive healthcare facilities — however well-designed — are so prevalent. There's also the possibility that many potential straight residents who are interested in the design won't feel comfortable in a community driven by gay culture.

Choire Sicha emphasizes the serious side:

And before we enjoy the fun architect porn, may I somberly and joylessly point out that there are huge, monster, enormous issues facing the gays, particularly those between 35 and 55? The next generation will likely have family structures not dissimilar to straight people to assist in aging issues; the previous generation often just died in silence, particularly prematurely. But what becomes of us current childless gays in our coming golden years—particularly the un-rich ones?

by Zoe Pollock

Alan Durning draws a metaphor:

Imagine if state law made it difficult for pizza joints to sell by the slice. You’d have to buy—and eat—a lot of pizza when you got a hankering. Either that, or you’d have to give up on pizza entirely. By-the-slice pizza lets light eaters save money without giving up pie entirely.

The car insurance market is like a no-slices pizza world. You have to buy a lot of insurance, even if you only drive a little. Or you have to give up driving – or drive illegally without insurance.

Washington state senator Phil Rockefeller introduced a bill to eliminate restrictions against mileage-based car insurance.

by Zoe Pollock

Taryn Simon photographs what people don't declare:

One result of that relentless documentation of seizures was an unexpected awareness of the overwhelming volume of black-market and counterfeit goods that are removed from economic circulation. The threat to the original implied by these products was interesting for me as a photographer, because photography is making a copy of something seemingly original or real, and here I was taking copies of copies. The objects couldn’t cross custom’s border, but the photographs could—and they could become commodities in another economy.

(Image: Handbags, from the Contraband project, by Taryn Simon)

by Zoe Pollock

Scott Esposito disagrees with gaming guru Jane McGonigal, and games like Chore Wars in which "players earn points for their online avatars by completing real-life adventures such as cleaning the bathtub":

I seriously wonder about the philosophy of life that underlies fantasies such as these. Because if you can’t get motivated to clean the tub because otherwise you’ll be cleaning your own body in fetid water–that is, if you need some kind of immediate gratification to get you psyched to do something any sane person should see the need to do–then I submit you have a problem.

And I think a nation that collectively can’t find the energy to clean its tub needs to have a serious conversation about motivation. Things like the arts, creativity, and fulfilling lifestyles thrive in societies where people see the inherent good in doing things that don’t provide immediate gratification.

 

by Chris Bodenner

A reader, with the best of intentions, foreshadows a concern voiced by Scott Lucas:

How better to support the successful democracy movement of the past days than to take our vacations this year in Egypt. I understand that tourism accounts for 5 to 6 percent of the GDP and it has been hit hard by the protest movement. Now it's time to go back and support these fine people with our dollars. Tuscany can wait another year. The beaches in Thailand are not going anywhere. Let's all go to Egypt in 2011 and see the sights and tell them firsthand that we support them!

by Patrick Appel

A second unofficial NASA PSA (first one here):

by Zoe Pollock

I'm pretty sure snakebites won't be featured in our next discussion thread.Vaughan Bell points to a new report in the addiction journal Substance Abuse:

The patient described a feeling of dizziness and blurred vision followed by a heightened arousal and sense of well-being lasting a few hours; a more intense state of arousal than he would experience with pentazocine injections. The patient was not able to identify the snakes used but was apprehensive about the risks involved in the process.

The other case involves a man who “subjected himself to being bitten once on his left foot by a small Indian cobra (Naja naja). The patient described the experience as a blackout associated with a sense of well-being, lethargy, and sleepiness”.

Anyone even slightly tempted by this description should check out the off-putting illustrations on the Wikipedia page on snakebites. Slightly less trippy I’m sure you’ll agree.

by Zoe Pollock

The formerly unemployed Jeffrey Essmann lands a job:

15 months of unemployment does something to you, changes you. The obvious horrible thing about poverty, of course, is that you can’t buy things, but poverty also dices and shreds whatever self-esteem you might have left after losing your job and your apartment. I remember the weekend I had $3.48 in the bank and was hoping my food stamps would electronically replenish on Monday so I could eat, and recall wondering whether there was a state of the soul beyond humility.

by Zoe Pollock

Chris Good admits:

Typically, campaigns and registered political committees are not very funny. I know this because I subscribe to a lot of press-release lists and read multiple accusations of hypocrisy every day. Many of them are supposed to be funny, but they are not. They range from impish to unintentionally hysterical to factually inaccurate. Such is the state of contemporary discourse.

But this year the RNC has some pretty good ones.